Outline of a Media Plan

Executive Summary
A short presentation that goes at the
beginning of a media plan
Shows only the main details of the plans
that busy executives can quickly know the
essence of the plan

So that busy executives can quickly know the

essence of the plan

It should include a table of contents of

your media plan

Situational Analysis
Research prepared in document format to
provide background for a media planner to
prepare a plan.
Provides perspective on where a brand has
been and where its potential lies in the
future.

Situational Analysis
Includes

History of the market

Deals with sales of all brands in the marketincluding client (all pertinent brands)
Includes geographic sales distribution, (zip
codes for Homevestors), market size in dollars
and units (What type of market is this
according to Homevestorsin presentation),
market share, any seasonal effects and price
effects

Situational Analysis
Includes

Distribution channels

Objective is to learn how a brand and its competitors

distribute products
Includes methods of selling, advertising budgets and
how and why promotions may be used. Distribution
information often affects media strategy because it can
help planner decide where to advertise.
How this relates to you. If Homevestors was on the air
all months last year, maybe they should consider
heavying up in some months or cutting back in others.
Contact Ms London for last years flowchart to see what
they did.

Situational Analysis
Includes

The consumer of the product

This profile of users of the product type (not

just Homevestors) includes personal
demographics such as age, sex, income,
occupation and geographic location. Lifestyles
and attitudes should be included
Profile of who buys this product vs who buys
competitors product (mom and pop) if
available.

Situational Analysis
Includes

The product

A history of the product and how it was

developed.
When and why any product changes were
made and the effects of such changes
Consumer perceptions of the values of various
brands can be importanthow do consumers
view Homevestorsthey like to improve
neighborhoodsvs competitors if known

Situational Analysis
Includes

Advertising and media analysis

Analysis of media expenditures for competing

brands (SOV) You have 4th quarter data
assume its the same for all quarters.
Includes media classes usednames of media
(TV, RADIO) and dollar and % allocation of
each medium.

Organizing your Plan

State the Marketing Challenge/Objective

succinctlywhat is your original problem,
challenge or task? What the whole thing
is about.

This was given to you by HomevestorsIT is

the Marketing objective, NOT the Media
objective

Organizing the Plan

Data tables

Are you going to have this at the end in an

addendum or along side the presentation
media numbers are boring, so consider
addendum or charts with colors.

Present an overview of competitive activity

and elementsInclude SOV data

Clients what to see what their competitors are

doing and you might get them to increase
budgets by doing this.

Organizing the Plan

Budget table-Provide one

This is like an outline of spending:

Outdoor
TV
Radio
DM
YP

$300,000
$150,000
$100,000
$100,000
$5000

Organizing the Plan

Provide a flow chart.

Start working on this NOW. This will take you

a lot of time to do. You need to decide how
you are going to spend the budget and
whoever is putting this together needs to start
working on it now.
Creative elements of a flowchart
Flighting
Different weight levelsheavier at start?
Different dayparts in TV
Placing certain medias on the air at the same
timeoutdoor and DM?

Organizing the Plan

Flowchart continued

Dont do the same thing all year long month in and month out.
Boring and not creative.
Do include interesting thingsAre you tying into any
promotions or tradeshows? Are you conducting any unique
guerilla tactics that should be highlighted on flowchart?
Are you going to set aside any money for opportunistic
purchases that may come up during the year?
Are you going to do a series of radio remotes with the radio
hosts?
Are you proposing any promotions during the year to coincide
with holidays or tax season or end of year?
Your flowchart should reflect all of theseand if there is a way
you can make it interesting with color, do it.

Organizing the Plan

Write Media Objectives

Remember 2 elements of each objective

Each objective should relate to a marketing objective
and/or strategy
Each media objective should be stated as completely
as possible.

The more detail, the more likely the objectives will

serve as guides for media strategies.
Your Media Objective might include: We need large
reach and modest frequency (making that up) You
need to define what large and modest are.

Organizing the Plan

The difference between media objectives

and media strategies: Media objectives
are goals that are related to the marketing
objectives and strategies; media strategies
are actions that can fulfill these
objectivesmany strategies can fulfill one
objectiveyour job is to choose most
effective strategy from all possibilities.

Organizing the Plan

Objectives: Example: Reach 60% of
target audience a minimum of 3+ times if
first 4 weeks of campaign with sustaining
R/F of 50R, 3F (Making up)
Strategy: How you are going to reach 60%
of target audience a minimum of 3+ times
(combination of TV, radio, DM, yellow
pages, etc.)

Organizing the Plan

Include rationale on why you didnt include

certain thingsdid not include newspaper
due to declining readership levels.
Phoenix paper costs have escalated 10%
in past year while readership has declined
15%. Made this cost prohibitive when
considering other alternatives.

Organizing the Plan

Tactics: How you will accomplish your
strategies
Example Objective: 70 R, 15+ F
Strategy: TV, Radio, outdoor,
promotion
Tactics: :30 and :15 second TV
running M-W only, :60 second radio on
news/talk only, :30 sheet pre-emptible
outdoor, specific zip codes for DM, Radio
and DM at same time

Organizing the Plan

Different tactical ways of scheduling broadcast

Continuity-same amount of weight throughout the plan

(you might have some hiatus weeks, but all weeks with
activity have same weight levels)
Pulsing-Just like a pulse. One week activity, next week
nothing, next week activity, next week nothing. On
again, off again tactic
Stair stepping Different weight levels by consecutive
weeks. Example: 3 week flight- Week 1 = 125 grps.
Week 2 = 100 GRPs. Week 3 =75 GRPs. Week 4 off
the air. You might repeat this pattern throughout the
plan.

Organizing the Plan

Graphic Elements

How can you make this stand out?

Colored charts on SOV?
Bar graphs on who their target audience is?
Web site presentation
Animation

Organizing the Plan

Make it cohesive
Practice your Presentation
Be creative and provide creative ideas
Provide information on how you
interpreted the research.
Provide information on how you took any
geographic considerations into account.